Mite / Initiation Hockey Drills OMHA

Initiation / Mite Level Hockey Drills

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The following drills were designed by the OMHA for initiation level hockey players. These are great drills for beginner hockey players, or young hockey players. These drills were created to help coaches build their players hockey skills, and also have diversity in practices. Hockey players sometimes learn more if they are having fun (especially at young ages) because they will try harder, and want to learn more in order to improve. The following drills are from the OMHA drill book which can be found on the website at Hometownhockey. These youth hockey drills focus on technical skills and individual tactics as these are the skills that should be worked on the most at the initiation level.

This drill is designed to be a fun drill and is a good drill from young hockey players. Fun drills are usually good drills to start with as the players will enjoy them and it will help the players warm up.

Time

Description

5 Minute Drill

Chaos – Free Time

Players skate all over the ice, stick handling the pucks

Coaches interact with the players passing the pucks back and forth

Encourage kids to hand the pucks, forehand, backhand, kick the pucks with their skates, no shooting against the boards

Drill Diagram

The point of this drill is for the players to practice many of the fundamental hockey skills in 10 minute sessions. This is a good drill to have because players can move quickly from one station to the other and little time is wasted explaining and setting up new drills.

Time

Description

50 Minutes

5 Station Skills Circuit – 10 Minutes at each station

Skating

Forward stride and bend, stop at blueline

Forward jump stride, stop at blueline

Forward crossovers

Backward c-cuts

backward striding

backward crossovers

Puck Control

Stationary puck control

Figure eights

Toe drag

Partner puck control

Pond Hockey

3 on 3 cross ice

Passing

Stationary forehand passing / rec

Stationary backhand passing / rec

Telescope passing / rec

Balance and Agility

Stationary balance 1 leg

Stationary deep knee bends

Inside / outside edges

Gliding on one foot

Drill Diagram

This is a great drill for players to practice their skating and stick handling abilities. By providing the players with different equipment it allows them to develop different motor skills and also adds a fun element to the drill which will keep them focused.

Time

Description

5 Minutes

Free Skate

As each skates steps onto the ice they are given either a puck, tennis ball, or street hockey ball

Skate in any direction on the ice

On the whistle the player must exchange their item with another piece of equipment

No shooting allowed, only puck control

Drill Diagram

This is a great drill for players to practice their balance and agility. Stations are kept at 5 minute intervals in order to keep the players attention and work on many different skills in a 20 minute time frame.

Time

Description

20 Minutes

Balance and Agility

Four stations, five minutes at each station. Change stations on a determined signal.

Station 1
(one of the end zones)

Players do crossovers around circle 1 (two and a half times) and then around circle 2 (two times)

Send 2-3 players at a time

Repeat 2-3 times

Do same as 1, but with pucks

Station 2
(Between blue line and red line)

Players run over agility boards. Execute a glide turn at pylons 1 and skate to pylon 2. Stop using tow foot front stop facing boards. Skate backwards from pylon 2 to pylon 3 and stop. Do lateral crossovers back to original position, repeat.

Station 3
(Between blue line and red line)

Group one skates backwards to pylon and pivots backwards to forward, then accelerates out of turn, skating forward and execute two foot stop at boards, then go to end of group two line

Group two skates forward to pylon and pivots forward and backwards. Skating backwards to sideboards and stopping. Go to end of group one line

Station 4 (one of the end zones)

Player controls puck while weaving through pylons

Player performs glide turn at last pylon, skating forward for ten metres before stopping. Face boards when you stop

Skate backwards to opposite side of rink while controlling the puck

Drill Diagram

This is a good drill to use to help develop puck control among initiation level players. This drill adds some friendly competition and also puck control in the feet.

Arrange pylons as shown, and have players race for a spotted puck and finnish with a shot on goal (add a second puck for second player if needed)

Station 2: Control puck with feet

Players cross the ice using feet to control the puck

Options are keeping the puck in feet at all times, or kicking puck slightly ahead (1 metre) alternate skates

Station 3: Chaos

Have each player skate randomly with a puck throughout the zone

Coaches add pressure to check and encourage to keep head up

Drill Diagram

Time

Description

5 Minutes

Fun Time

Players skate to the blue line and…

Coast on both skates, jump the red line and blue line. Take off on two feet and land on two feet.

Coast on both skates. Jump the red line, turn 180 degrees in air and land backwards. At the blue line jump and turn 180 degrees and land going forwards. Always take off on two feet and land on two feet

Coast on only one skate. Jump red and blue line on one skate. Do not put other skate down

Repeat last point with other leg

Do these 2 or 3 times each

Drill Diagram

This is a good alternative to a scrimmage. By breaking the players into three groups in three sections on the ice, more players will be involved in the practice at one time.

Time

Description

5 Minutes

Pond Hockey Drill

Use a puck

Use three areas and play cross ice

Use pylons as goals (instead of nets)

To score puck pust hit pylon

No goalies

Drill Diagram

This is a fun skating drill that is also good to use as an opening drill to warm players up.

Time

Description

10 Minutes

Free skate

Players skate clockwise around the ice. At blue line they perform four warm-up exercises

Touch toes

Squat low

Pull knee to chest

Touch one knee to ice

Between the blue lines: Skates stay on ice at all times, spread legs wide and then bring them in together.

Drill Diagram

Time

Description

20 Minutes

Balance and Agility

Cross ice touching knee on ice after each stride. I.e drive with left skate, touch left knee to ice and get up. Drive with right skate, touch right knee to ice and get up, repeat across ice. Do three times

Cross ice doing forward alternate leg crossovers

Players skate forward and perform a task at each section of ice.

Jump over agility board

Dive under obstacle (set on two high pylons)

Jump over agility board set on pylons

Dive under obstacle set on two pylons. Player gets up and turns 360 degrees around pylon, skates forwards (six metres) pivots forward to backwards and skates backwards to boards. Lateral crossovers back to original postion. Repeat

Same set up as 3. Players can carry puck with them. Must slide puck under obstacles on pylons, skate around and puck it up. Perform an open ice carry on the return to position.

Repeat using route-2 as players should do on forehand and backhand

Drill Diagram

This is a good passing and skating drill. Half the players line up and practice passing and the other half practice skating with the puck. If desired the entire team can practice passing, and then the entire team can practice handling the puck

Time

Description

10 Minutes

Stationary Passing / Receiving and Stopping with puck

Review and demonstrate key points

Players partner off approximately six metres apart

Practice forehand pass and receive

practice backhand pass and receive

Alternate with players spaced ten metres apart

Players practice stickhandling across the ice stop and repeat.

Repeat 6-7 times

Drill Diagram

More Initiation Hockey Drills – Small area games

Check out this PDF that includes a lot of small area games that are great for younger hockey players.

For more drills I recommend the Weiss tech hockey playbook and hockey Drillbook, you can buy them separately, or together as a bundle Learn more about the playbook and drillbook here. If you don’t know Jeremy Weiss you should definitely follow his blog as he is a very smart coach, and he is always sharing new drills for all age levels.

I hope these drills will help you come up with some effective practices for your players. I am working on putting a post together for Novice level hockey drills and Novice level Practice plan. If you would like to get more posts like this sent right to your inbox then feel free to subscribe to this blog by entering your email address in the box to the left.

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Hi my name is Jeremy Rupke. My goal is to break every hockey skill down into easy to understand articles and videos. I explain everything step-by-step to help others improve. I'm active on Instagram, Facebook and more, you can follow through the links above.
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Hi Ron,
I’m a Coach for Tyke level kids. I have combined practices with another tyke team and there is 25 kids on the Ice at a ime. 5 Station drills are my typical practice plans. One thing I am seeing, my kids do not have a compatitive / compete for the puck hockey sence because we are not practicing this. Do you have any “compete for the puck” drills?
Thanks for your help
Herb

Put a net in the corner facing the boards. Send puck into corner and have two players compete for the puck to score on net. Coach keeps puck in the corner or takes it if not fighting for puck enough. Keep drill to about 30 seconds send in next pair use 6-8 players. Change player amounts 3 / 4 once they understand.

Hi there, I am currently coaching the little guys and am having troubles keeping them busy. We only have 10 players, and would like some suggestions and drills to keep them busy as I am the only coach on the ice with the 10 of them.

I too am coaching an initiation team with 22 kids and only 7 have played hockey before. So I guess what I am looking for is some skating drills and other drills for begineers that would be easy to instruct and for the kids to pick up on and learn.

I am the on ice coordinator for the Mini Mite program in the Ann Arbor Amateur Hockey Association. I am looking for additional age related hockey drills (cross ice) that I can add to my arsenal of drills that I already have. would be willing to share my collection from over 20 years of coaching. Feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Hi Ron,
I’ve been asked to coach an initiation team this year and am really looking for some drills to do with the kids. I have been out of the game for quite a few years so i’m pretty rusty. Any help would be great!
Thanks
Kurtis
Wainwright, Alberta